As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

Life is chock full of choices. Do I take the job? Do I date that person? Do I stay in my home town or move away to some far off place? But those are the simple choices. The ones we can make with an open heart. Then there are the other decisions. The ones that define who are and who you will be. Do I get out of bed today or do I let my circumstances cripple me to the point that I can’t move?

Life can go from a hum drum ordinary existence to a living nightmare in a matters of seconds. It’s what you do in those moments that defines you. Defines the legacy you will leave when you’re gone. You can choose to dwell in that pain, to let it consume you until it becomes all you are, or you can look around you and find the smallest thing to be thankful for. You can let anger cloud your every decision or you can find pure bliss in simple moments. Choose the better part. Your life is the sum of the decisions that you make. From the great big life altering ones right down to the decision to get out of bed when you just want to sleep through the pain, which doesn’t work FYI. You can choose to live your life out loud in bold color, in defiance of what the enemy is trying to do in your life, or you can choose to “live” paralyzed. Choose life. Choose faith. Choose hope. Choose the better part.

Godspeed,

Mollie

This post is a part of a writing flash mob that goes down every week across the blogosphere. A one word prompt and a five minute time limit. Did I mention no editing allowed?! Want to learn more and to read the offerings of my fellow Five Minute Friday writers? Check it out here!

Be loyal. To your family and friends, to your job(s), to God. Absolutely make loyalty your mission, but don’t forget the person in the mirror. It’s easy to forget yourself in most things, but especially in this.

THE CHALLENGE

I challenge you to take a picture of yourself right now. Do you have it? Good. Who do you see in that picture?

Now, take a minute…how do you wish the woman/man in the photo were different? I’m not talking about physical appearance here. What qualities, what characteristics do you wish to develop in yourself? What do you want to be known for? Remembered for? Do you have them in mind? Find an app to write them on your picture with. (I used WordSwag.)

Then, if you will, share that post with your friends so they can participate as well.

WHAT NEXT

Keep that picture where you can easily access it. Keep her/him in mind when you are walking through your days. Remember that photo when you are reacting to situations. It might not come quickly, but sooner than you think you will think of those qualities you are trying to cultivate in yourself before you react, before you say the unkind words, before you look to the world to tell you who you are.

I will leave you with my life verse:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” –Jeremiah 29:11

God has you. He has a plan and a purpose just for you.

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

You know is a rather daunting word to be one so small. One that will plague you with anguish and doubts. If I had done this instead of that would things have turned out differently? If I had told him how I feel sooner would he have stayed? If I had the time back would I do it the same or would I make some changes?

There is always an if looming in the back of my mind, even when things are going well. The proverbial “waiting for the other shoe to drop” as it were. Let me tell you about the if that’s stealing my thoughts right now. If I weren’t able to be with my kids anymore, have I taught them everything they need to get by without me? It is a very real if for me because I find myself in the middle of a custody battle that leaves me seeing my small ones only every other weekend for now. So, I sit and I think about the things I want them to really know. And I wonder, have I taught them these things well?

Have I taught them….

To always pray first and talk later?

To be loyal?

To be honest?

To be men of integrity?

To be kind, even when people aren’t kind to them?

Have I taught them that love is the most important thing and to do everything out of great love?

Have I taught them to stand up for themselves and for those who are weaker than they are?

They are only 8 and 10 and to be honest I struggle with some of these things in my day to day life. So, these have been lessons that have maybe not been modeled so well for them to this point, but instead of dwelling on my failings as a parent I am taking my if and turning it into an action plan. I took and I wrote down these things I want them to carry through life and I promise myself not to waste the little bit of time we have together.

What is your if and how are you going to put some action behind it?

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

I am an emotional eater. When I’m sad I want all the food. Let me tell you, I have had many sad moments recently. My mom passed away unexpectedly 4 months ago and I have done quite a job putting food on top of all those feelings. This past January I had started a fitness journey as a fitness coach and lost a good bit of weight, but I managed to gain most of it back in the last four months. I completely abandoned the things I knew were good for my body and the things that keep my body happy. I ate out most every day after the onslaught of food brought by friends stopped. I stopped exercising, which I did almost daily before.

As someone who tries to encourage women and equip them with the ability to love themselves and their bodies where they are, I don’t feel good when I look in the mirror right now. I feel tired and like I’ve let down not only myself, but the people who have been following me for the last year.

So, I’ve decided to do something about it. A reboot on my relationship with food if you will and a journey to grow closer to God. Maybe you share some of the same feelings I’ve been having? Maybe you need to learn how to love yourself better? Or maybe you need to learn to put down the fork and seek out the one who truly provides comfort to the weary and hurting? I’m ready to get started and I would like to invite you to join me on the journey. Starting in January I will be hosting a study on the book Full by Asheritah Ciuciu, in a private Facebook group. In her book she explores how to create a healthier relationship with food through a stronger relationship with Jesus!

Join my Facebook group, where the study will take place, here and buy your copy of the book here. Join me and let’s explore food, faith and satisfaction! Feel free to share with any friends you think would enjoy this study as well!

When I’m hurting my first instinct is to hide away and deal with it by myself. Well, if I’m being honest my first thought is why am I still not married so I have someone to carry this burden alongside me? I miss having someone who is near to me when the world starts to crumble at my feet. Someone I can call and they come no matter what when they hear the distress in my voice. Someone who’s arms, when they’re around me, act as a barrier between me and the harsh realities of the world.

But then I remember that I have all of that, not in a man, because God hasn’t sent him to me yet, but in the arms of the Creator Himself. He is there whenever the world starts to crumble. He is there to pick up the pieces and to set me on the road that will lead me to where I am supposed to be. Every circumstance, every heartache, has served to create in me the spirit of a warrior who fights a battle with the enemy every day and each battle teaches me how to better fight. We fight not with men, but with alongside God. He is always near. To draw near to God, you need but to take up the warrior’s stance, on your knees!

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

You know some days the stressors in our lives bring crashing down all of the carefully pent up fears that would paralyze us if we gave them too much thought. I’m afraid I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life. I’m afraid I’m not mothering my boys well enough. I’m afraid I’m going to turn horrible awful men out into the world because I didn’t do a good enough job. I’m afraid that I am never going to truly succeed at anything. That I will just be “trying” or “starting out” in a perpetual loop forever. I’m afraid I will always feel like a loser.

Ok, that’s over now. Time to get back up, dust myself off and walk forward. Wallowing in my failures is not an option. I choose to bring two people into this world and they deserve better than a mother who can’t see outside of her own fears long enough to raise them well and to make a better person out of herself and to keep striving for a better life for us all.

Honestly, these were my exact thoughts tonight. It’s ok to have these moments, as long as you know where to go to get yourself out of it. Here is my arsenal I choose for tonight:

And because a little bit of brave is always a good idea when you’re feeling the weight of your fears:

There is no excuse to stay weighed down by your fears. Not when God has given us all the tools we need to see through to the other side!

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

I have been trying for 3 months now to put into words the torrent of emotions that hit when your Mom passes away, but there are just no words. This feeling is indescribable. I am no stranger to death. My big brother passed away 12 years ago, all my grandparents 15 years ago, and I can’t even tell you the number of friends I’ve lost along the way. But there is just something different when it’s your mom. There are just no words. The best I can do is that there is nothing that will make you feel like a very small and frightened child like facing life without your momma for the first time.

So instead of trying to describe this feeling I’m going to tell you what I’ve learned these last three months. Give me some grace in this post. My thoughts and emotions are still somewhat jumbled.

Sometimes life crumbles around you and in my opinion it’s then that you discover the people who are real in your life. Not the ones who are just there to see what they can get out of you, or to ride with you during your highlight reel, but the ones who are really in your life to be a part of it, for the good and the bad. It is a treasure to find those people who will have your back no matter what.

I will never be able to adequately tell you how much all the people who have stood by my side during this major life change have meant to me.

Sometimes the people you think will be by your side when the unthinkable happens aren’t When that happens, when someone doesn’t show up for you like to think they should, don’t put them on blast. People are imperfect. They get wrapped up in their own lives and can’t see outside of themselves. Besides, you never know what someone is going through in private. Be the bigger person. Don’t let your pain distort who you are. How they react to you is theirs to deal with and to answer for. Your reactions are yours alone. I can’t say this loudly enough, social media is not the place to air your grievances with someone. Just don’t be that person.

Show up and show off for your people, even if they weren’t there for you when you needed them.

I am reminded of this Mother Teresa quote that says it all. Let’s embrace the wisdom of those who walked this Earth before us.

People are often unreasonable and self-centered

FORGIVE THEM ANYWAY

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives

BE KIND ANYWAY

If you are honest, people may cheat you

BE HONEST ANYWAY

If you find happiness, people may be jealous

BE HAPPY ANYWAY

The good you do today may be forgotten

DO GOOD ANYWAY

Give the world your best and it may never be enough

GIVE YOUR BEST ANYWAY

for you see, in the end it is between

YOU AND GOD

It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

And just one more wise quote for good measure.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

– Mahatma Gandhi

To My Momma….

Yesterday I had Thanksgiving without you for the first time. There have been other tables with other families that I’ve sat at over the years, but the day ALWAYS included you. Never would I ever have dared to miss dinner at your house. It was a good day, Mom. The family I spent the day with, they will never know how much it meant to me to be with them and to be welcomed in so seamlessly, even though I must have told my friend half a dozen times already. Words just don’t do justice to the impact that small act of kindness had on me. They made it a little easier to make it through the day.

My heart and my head are still having trouble processing that you just won’t be here for all of these things anymore. There are reminders of you everywhere I turn. I see pumpkin pie and I think of that buttermilk pie you made that you forgot to put sugar in. Oh, it was so bad! The other day there was a funny challenge on Facebook where you were asked to text your mom and ask her how long you microwave a 25lb turkey and then share what she said. I can just see you shaking your head as you tell me that you can’t microwave a turkey! I still can’t fathom that you aren’t there for me to call with these silly things. I’m supposed to be able to call you with all the questions I have. I wasn’t ready for you to go. There are still so many things I still just don’t know how to do like you did them. It just doesn’t feel real that life won’t include you anymore.

I’ll be ok, Mom. I have people. I have amazing people, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you every single second of every day. You are never far from my thoughts. Life is still a little bit one day at a time right now, but the tears, they come less frequently and the memories, they bring warmth and joy.

We are collectors in this life. We collect experiences. And like the things in our house, we showcase some of those experiences by posting them on our social media or telling everyone we meet about them. Others, like a box of old mementos and letters from a failed relationship hidden in the back of a closet, we hide away from the rest of the world out of shame or fear of what people will think. But it’s those moments, all of those experiences that combine to make us unique and special and perfectly who we are. It’s that memory that pops up for us that shapes the way we react to the next experience in a different way than anyone else. It’s your collection of experiences that touches the world, shapes other people’s lives and tells them that they are not alone in the struggles of life. Go ahead and hide the things that you need to, but if you’re brave enough bring it all on out to the living room and let people identify with the things that make you who you are. Let them hear the echoed “me too” when they see something familiar in your story.

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

This year has been about redefining life for me. So I would like to talk about redefining how we teach our children about Jesus. I am a single mom with two wild and crazy little boys. Let me tell you, co-parenting is hard! Especially when you share time with your littles and can’t do all the things you would like to do with and for them. For me, one of the biggest problems is that they go to their dad’s on weekends, so they don’t go to church. They are rarely with me on a weekend and he does not take them.

What do you do when taking your kids to church on Sundays isn’t an option?

There are resources available for you if you just look for them. There are books and children’s devotionals, even tv shows that teach the lessons from the Bible, and don’t forget the most valuable resource of all, The Bible itself! I will leave you to sort through those. But there is one that I just have to mention. I love this family devotional written by my friend Susan Chamberlain Shipe!

In 52 Commands of Jesus for Children Susan not only provides 52 scripture based devotionals, she also sprinkles in tips for helping to drive the points home. While gently lending a reminder to parents that we too are still ever learning these lessons alongside our children. I’ve never seen a devotional of this magnitude that truly teaches both parent and child. This truly is a devotional for the whole family! While there are 52 lessons contained within these pages, I believe the true lesson for parents is to walk in grace while teaching our children. We after all have been at it a lot longer than they have and we still haven’t perfected our walk with Jesus.

You can pick up your copy here!!! I promise you won’t be sorry you did!

Did I mention the coloring pages? There is one that goes along with each weekly lesson and you can print however many you want off from here! Your kids will love them! Mine did. Mommy may have even colored a page!

But what else is there? This past school year I accepted an invitation from a dear friend to go to a weekly women’s Bible study group at her mother’s church. They had childcare in the form of an AWANA program. AWANA is a nonprofit program that teaches children to know, love and serve Christ.

My kids absolutely loved it! They had such fun every Wednesday night! They would fight over who got to recite their weekly verses for me to show me that they had memorized them first! The best part, they weren’t just learning them and forgetting them. One night I was telling my oldest about a song that refers to John 3:16. I started the verse and he jumped right in and finished it! Nothing will make a momma’s heart smile more than knowing here babies and learning about Jesus every week from a great team. But sadly, when the school year came to an end, so did the AWANA program. What now?

Now comes what I affectionately like to call the Tour De VBS! We have a ton of local churches that provide free week long Vacation Bible School programs for children, and they are spread out throughout the summer months. They are usually around two hours a night for a week and they are theme based Bible programs. My kids are currently in their third week of VBS, this week at our own church which excited this mom! It gives them a chance to learn about Jesus and have some interaction with other kids their ages. It is hard to go from being in school with classmates everyday to being home with mom everyday.

There is always of course, that they learn by example. When they ask me if I went to church on Sunday I had better be able to truthfully tell them that I did. They see me reading my Bible throughout the week and it is always on the table by my computer. It may not be perfect and it is definitely non-traditional, but that is what we do to combat the problem of not being able to go to church on Sundays. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

Do you have any other non-traditional tips for me? I am always looking for ways to improve and win at this mom thing!

YOU have to know your own worth before anyone else will recognize it in you.

Who are you? Do you really know? Have you taken the time to really think of what makes you, you? Of what makes you unique? To really do this accurately you have to be able to drown out all the voices that try to tell you who you are and focus in on the only voice that truly knows. Can you hear Him whispering in your ear? When you set out to discover your worth, let His voice be the loudest one you hear. Let Him tell you of all the great gifts and talents He has placed inside of you. Be prepared though, as soon as you let His voice be louder, all of the other voices are going to try to win out and tell you that you’re not all the beautiful and wonderful things He says you are. When you’ve got it, come back and tell me. I would love to know those places inside you that were planted and are being cultivated by God.

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

About Me

Hi! I'm Mollie! I'm so glad you stopped by. My hope is to be able to show you how to discover what I like to call God's little love notes sprinkled all throughout your days. I promise you'll find them if you just look for them.